Great Northern Popcorn Stovetop Popcorn Maker, Silver, 6.5 Quart

I eat a ton of popcorn and I hate all the salt and chemicals added to microwave popcorn. But I hate standing there and waiting for oil to heat in a pot and for the corn to pop via the age-old method of popcorn preparation. So for years I have air popped corn by putting the kernels in a paper lunch bag and microwaving on 80% power for 4 minutes. It worked, but 1/3 of my kernels didn't pop or were "fun kernels." (Fun kernels are the half-popped ones you eat as a bonus when the real stuff is gone.) This Christmas I was considering two corn poppers. One was the West Bend Stir Crazy 6-Quart Electric Popcorn Popper. My family had one of these as a kid and I remember it working very well and all-in-one. But it was 1/3 more in price than the Wabash Valley Farms Whirly-Pop, a product I'd never heard of, but which looked good in theory. So I tried out the Whirly-Pop. NOTE: My girlfriend also bought me a popcorn popper for Christmas. One was a Whirly-Pop, one was a Great Northern Original Spinner. They were exactly identical except for the name stamped onto the lid. I kept the Whirly-Pop because I liked the name better. The Whirly-Pop is AMAZING! First time I used it I turned the stove top on medium-high heat, plopped some oil through both sides of the lid, poured in 1/2 cup of kernels, closed the lid and stirred the corn every 30 seconds or so. In three minutes I had perfect popcorn and every kernel popped. I was incredulous. Certainly I'd mistaken the time, right? Nope. I've used the Whirly-Pop a dozen or more times since then and every time my whole process takes 3-4 minutes. Actually, I've never hit 4 minutes, but I've been over 3.5 minutes. That's my whole process - from the time I turn on the stove to popcorn in my bowl ready to be flavored or just eaten. By the time I get out the butter and put away the kernels my popcorn requires my attention and a minute later I'm eating it. Heaven! The metal on the bottom is thin enough that the oil heats fast, obviously. The crank turning the metal bars that stir the corn to keep it from burning/sticking on the bottom is solid. I've had no problem with the gear as some people mentioned. I'm wondering how hard they're cranking the the thing if they're actually breaking it! The only "complaint" I might have would be that the lid could be a little thicker. It doesn't need to be and doing so would just make the thing weigh more so this is purely a personal taste "complaint." The lid pops off for easy clean up of both bottom and lid assembly. And the lid clips securely back into place when finished cleaning. Seriously, if you like popcorn buy this thing. I'm kicking myself for all the time I wasted making my own air-popped microwave corn and a pre-bought microwave bag takes even longer! This is the fastest thing I've ever seen. And at $25 more or less you can't go wrong. The only downside is that the Whirly-Pop does such a fantastic job that I don't have any unpopped or fun-kernels left when the popcorn is gone!

I have only used it a handful of times, but has been great. Some people say it’s faster than microwave bags, while I don’t think that’s true. It does taste a lot better. I use the orange coconut oil popping oil and flavacol and comes out just as good as movie theatre popcorn. It doesn’t take a lot longer to make than the bags, and may get to be just as fast with some practice, but taste way better and more fun to use and very easy to use. Overall quality seems okay. It’s not super heavy, not sure how long it’ll last, but if I can get a year out of it I’m happy.

If you love popcorn, you need this. The whirly pop is a life changing device. It's so easy to use, and it's basically impossible to make bad popcorn. Just 2 tablespoons of oil and 1/2 cup of popcorn and you're ready to rock and roll. This is one of the most used kitchen items in my house, and I frequently buy this as a gift for other popcorn lovers. This thing is worth every single penny.

Should have bought a bigger one.

My daughter and I adore this device--we bought it months ago, and we still use a few times a week, sometimes more. It takes less than five minutes from start to finish on the stovetop, and when we use coconut oil and Flavacol seasoning, we have hot, fresh, delicious theatre-style popcorn. I recommend this highly to anyone who loves popcorn and would like to spend less money on those gross microwave bags; the start up cost is a little high when you factor in the spinner here, the oil, the popcorn salt, and the seeds (I was about $35-$40 initially), but it lasts a long time and the overall cost is a small fraction of buying grocery store bags. We use 2 TBSP of oil, 1 TBSP of salt (in the cooker, though we sometimes add more after it's cooked), and 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of seeds, and this ratio makes more popcorn than we can eat. (I would not recommend putting 1 cup of seeds in the cooker--it's not big enough, and the popcorn on the bottom will either burn or sort of fuse together.) I have only a couple of notes about things I'm not super hot about: --The small holes in the top of the lid (where the hinges are) allow enough space for hot oil spatters. Not very much, but once or twice while making a batch I'll feel it on my arm. It's only a minor annoyance to me, but those with more sensitive skin might want to wear a long oven mitt to protect from this. --The gears that came on mine are plastic and becoming slightly discolored, which also does not affect the performance. It does make it look perpetually dirty. --The kettle is a little thin, too, so dropping it on the floor or banging it on the counter may dent it. Due to its thinness, it gets VERY HOT, not only while you're applying stovetop heat, but while you're emptying the corn. Recommend use of oven mitts, especially for children. The wooden handle is not hot, but the kettle could do some damage to little (or larger) fingers. --If you get it too full, you might have some issues getting the popcorn that's crammed in the bottom to come out; we hold one side shut with an oven-mitted hand and dislodge the corn with a butter knife--just a small stir will help the rest come pouring out. We clean our spinner with paper towels normally, and occasionally by running all parts under the hot water tap, allowing to air dry, and then using paper towels again, and it's perfect. You'll want a big, big bowl if you use 1/2 or 3/4 cup of seeds (enough so that you can add seasonings and shake it around). We buy generic grocery-store seeds for about $1/lb and they work fine and taste great. I would not recommend children under eleven or twelve use this alone due to how hot it gets; they may injure themselves attempting to dump the kettle into bowls. I would also not recommend making kettle corn/adding sugar as it will clump in the bottom, but if you're up to cleaning it, you can definitely do so. This would be a great gift, too.

I have to start of by saying that when I first opened this and looked inside I was not overly pleased with the thin wire "stirrers". I was expecting to see larger flat metal bars that stirred the popcorn while turning. So, I decided that the only way to tell if they worked or not was to put it right into use. 2 Tablespoons of Popcorn oil and 1/2 c of popcorn were placed into the maker on medium heat on top of my gas stove and off we went. I started slowly turning the handle with the front lid open, so that I could see how well or not well the wire stirred the popcorn. As expected, it did not hardly catch the popcorn at all when turning. That is until the popcorn started to heat up and expand just a little, right before it pops. Then the wire starting doing it's job to marvelous efficiency. I quickly closed the lid and we were off to the popcorn races. It quickly started to become harder to turn the handle as the popcorn filled the chamber. After only a couple of minutes, at most, virtually all the kernels of popcorn had popped, leaving only small bits of husk and broken popcorn in the bottom of the popper. One major plus to this popcorn maker is how light it is. I am hoping that this is also not a major con down the road as to how long it will hold up. I will do some follow-ups to this review after I have used it for some time, but for right now, I highly recommend this popcorn maker for anyone who loves the taste of movie theatre popcorn.

I looked at a lot of stove top poppers! All of them had good and bad reviews. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, in case it didn’t work well. I have used it twice and both times it worked great!! I did goggle how to season/prep my pan so that it would not burn/stick when being used. This seems to be the key to these aluminum pans working as expected. So far the mechanics of the pan are working great, I will update if that stops being the case!

We have owned several of these. After a couple years, they do seem to need to be replaced, but that’s normally not an issue for us. We make a lot of popcorn. This comes with a 90 day warranty. These poppers are made so cheap. We have had ours about six months and the last month or so the lid will not close correctly. It leaves about an eighth or quarter inch gap therefore splashes oil all over you HOT oil and burns you. Unfortunately, nobody wants to take responsibility for this kind. Kind of defective manufacturing. I would not recommend this one for sure. I wish I could give it a zero star rating.

商品は良く、梱包も国際郵便貨物としては、必要十分で好感が持てます。（米国加州から、発送されました） 流石は米国で企画されただけあって（中国製）、造りは頑丈で使い易く、ポップコーンの出来上がりも上々で、酒の摘みにも最適です。 また、攪拌機構が付随した鍋蓋の取り外しは勿論、洗浄も容易で衛生的なのも高評価です。 お子さんが興味を持ち易いので、家庭での食育の良い教材となるし、誕生会等での余興にも最適です。 ただ残念なのは取扱説明書が英文のみなので、日頃から英文に慣れ親しんでいる方でないと平易な英文ですが、少々辛いかもしれません。 私個人としての評価は堂々の５っ星（とても気に入った）ですが、一般的日本人向けの評価として、大きく減点して３っ星（普通）としました。 良い商品ですので、業者さんやAmazonn.Jp様の企業努力に、期待しています。

Excelente producto, las palomitas quedan perfectas, solo tener cuidado con las superficie caliente

Excellent product, good quality as expected!

This is a good quality product with quick delivery. Perfect for use on our glass-top stove and makes great popcorn. Good value.

Fantastic popcorn maker This is our second one First lasted for years